The Iceboy & the Jester
by Mells the Daydreamer
Summary: AshxPuck: There was always more between them than a simple bromance. But they never could live it out since a girl couldn't accept Ash's love for another person. So she forced them to go paths without each other, promising she'd come back if they dared to broke the promise she made them swear. But Pash wouldn't be badass if they gave up that easy.
1. Of dreams & memories

**Hey there. I'm Melly & hope you'll like my first fanfiction here. I made a post on tumblr about Pash & it escalated quickly, peoplec wanted a fanfic about it so I volunteered to do so. I love reviews without them I get easily insecure xD So I hope you'll like it**

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_It is gruesome, unbearable. His eyes stare at the moveless body but his mind isn't able to understand what he sees, there's just blood dropping from crimson hair to the ground and lightless eyes staring nowhere. He tries to crawl to the corpse but get's kicked away from a slim silhouette, he feels how his fingers let go of his sword, then a paralysing pain strikes through his back. Ash looks up into two mad blue-green eyes focused on him. The girl smirks devilish at the winter fey while she raises his own ice sword and let's it bash down the neck of the already dead summer prankster. The blood covers the white wedding gown of the gorgeous girl. The disgusting taste of Ash's hatred tickles on his tongue as he jumps up to stab into her horrible heart with an ice knife while she raises his sword again. Both thrust the blades into each other's hearts._

_"You were supposed to love _me_! But I always knew you'd be the death of me, Ash!", the silverhaired girl gasps before she falls to the ground. Ash smiles and whispers:" But I'll always love another person." His eyes turn as dead as the emerald ones he's fixated on in his last breath._

Ash's eyes split open and he wheezes sweating, while processing this disturbing nightmare. Meghan lies peacefully beside him, not noticing his sudden shock. Her sun gold hair is messy and covers her nose while her arms hold a pillow which reminds him of a child holding it's favorite plush toy.

The former winter prince snorts and leaves the bed, going on the balcony from where he looks to the wyldwoods direction. The memory is clearer than anything else. That very day he likes to look back every now and then:

_It was a great day for a hunt. The unseelie prince prepared his feary-horse and the hunting dogs before he made his way to the edge of the winter court. Mab gave him some free days without any demands because she wasn't really caring about him right now and prefered to spend time with her newest toy Rowan brought her from the human world: A young girl who wrote stories about winter's beauty. She would most likely write about how terrible it was if she'd ever made it back to her home. But her future didn't seem that bright, Ash knew that. He sighted about his brother's attempts of becoming the favorite son again. So pitiful and weak._

_Suddenly the dogs detected a promising scent and started barking while running into the wyldwood. Ash made his horse gallop and followed them with a smirk. There was no creature he couldn't catch!_

_The trees flew by and weak fey disappeared quickly when they saw him, on the way he noticed some of his dogsy laying dead on the ground, cut open. The wounds didn't seem like an animals work, so he knew he was chasing a person. Immediatly he speeded up and arrived on a meadow where even more dead hunting dogs layed. A crimson haired feary fought them off so easily as if they were just nasty flies. One by one they fell on the ground while the daggers of their opponent flashed in the the sunlight, moving too fast for ordinary people to see.  
But Ash did and he had to confess he was impressed. The hunting dogs were raised and trained by the best hunters of the unseelie realm including Ash himself, so just a very skilled fighter could kill them off like that._

_The last dog fell dead to the ground and the redhead looked up, having a huge sassy smirk on his face and glowing green eyes. "Sorry for your puppies, but dogs must stay on the leash this season or you have to pay for the infringement.", he joked and remained in fight position.  
"Who are you?", Ash demanded to know growling while studying the summer fey carefully. Maybe even too carefully."Me? Oh please! Don't act like you have no idea, icy highness. My face get's regonized everywhere. Oh, don't ask how I know who you are, it's obvious! You have the same face as Queen Grumpy Ice: Skin pale as snow, lips red as blood, hair black as night...but not singing joyfully with the birds like our dear, dear Snow White.", the seemingly seelie fey responded with cheer, and winked provoking. "Oh! How could I be so silly and not regonize Oberon's fool. Robin Goodfellow the infamous trickster. What a sad pleasure to finally meet you.", the winter prince answered with a dark smile still studying the redhead intensely. " Your look is a little too amazed, princeling. But I can understand what an spectrum it must be to see the joker of your bedtime stories in real."_


	2. A good good morning with flysoup

**Thanks so much for the reviews & tips. I wanna update as often as I can ;)**

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"Hey, good morning!", Meghan yawns which interrupts Ash's thoughts of the past. She leans against him while following his gaze.  
"What's so interesting about this view, huh?", she asks in a curious tune while Ash sighs and turns away.  
"It's nothing, Meg. I was just..."  
"You were looking yearningly into this direction while having a broody look. You do this every morning, honey and I have no idea why.", the Iron Queen points out with humor but has a concerned look in her sky-blue eyes.  
"I should have known you were awake and watching me.", the former prince says while shaking his head, thinking how silly he was not to notice she watched him every morning.  
She put's it off with a joke:" If you don't notice me anymore while I watch you, I'm seriously worried your winter sithe part get's weaker. You became sloppy in the last years, maybe I should send you to Tir Na Nog to get a refit!" She punches his shoulder playfully as she reads in his eyes he get's really panicked on the thought and may think he really needs a refit.  
"Don't overreact, Ash! I like your new more human self. Now let's see if our breakfast is ready, I am really hungry."  
He nods and follows her to the door but looks one more time back to the direction where the wyldwood would be. He knows he should be happy about his seemingly perfect life, but the truth is he misses the old days when he was just out there with his friend.

As soon as they arrive in the dining room Meghan sits down and grabs some very great looking pancakes and marmalade to spread. "Even queens can have great ordinary pancakes as breakfast...well not that ordinary when they were made by the best chefs in the Iron Realm", she points out randomly while Ash just takes a plate with fruits. He hesitates as he sees a delicious looking red apple before he changes his mind and eats fried dragon egg instead.  
"Hey Mom & Dad! Great morning to kick the asses of some gremlins, right?", Keirran greets as he takes a plate full of toast with cheese and disappears again to his room. Meghan's eyebrows rise so high that Ash is fascinated how much a face can stretch before both let out a sigh. "Please keep an eye on him today, I have some conferences today.", she murmurs and takes a long sip from her coffee before she stands up with vigor and confirms:" This gotta be a day full of work to make the court better. Just as any other...I wish I could get vacation." Ash gives her an encouraging look and says:" If Keirran get's in trouble I'll get it right, don't worry."

***meanwhile in Arcadia* **

"GOODFELLOW! WHAT DID YOU PUT IN MY SOUP?", Titania hisses while ripping the door of his room from its moorings. The summer prankster get's up and tries to escape by jumping out the window but his hood get's grabbed by the summer queen's scrawny hands.  
"Lady Mean Temper, why would I ever put something in your soup? And if it calms you down I may give away the fact that blow-flies are a delicacy in Mumbai...", he calls out with flawlessly played shocked expression first but a cunning grin while saying the second sentence. Titania's face turns red which makes her even look more like a female devil version and Puck can't hold it back any longer and barks out laughing as he sees a fly leg stuck between her teeth. "This was the last time you ever annoyed me, scumbag! I don't care if Oberon likes you or not, he may never find out how his jester disappeared!", she says with crazy eyes. With one quick move Puck warps her arms around & spins her with so much speed that she can't stand anymore when he finally stops and jumps out of the window, turning into a giant raven, heading to the wyldwood


	3. A prince's duty to be

**I'm glad people review & give me tips :D It encourages me to go on & learn from mistakes, thank you so much**

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Ash goes his way to Keirran's room, hoping the young prince is really there and not doing something stupid outside. He really loves his son, but the fierceness and the rebellious acting of him is alarming, both Meghan and Ash know teenagers are that way, so they just keep calm. And still they can't help but have an eye on their son, since he's a prince he has to learn how to prevent trouble, stay polite and know better than jumping blindly into fights.  
The thing is: He is a perfect prince around people who are very important in the court and when they go to the Elysium, but around others he can't help but to chance it. Well that way he became the best fighter in his age-class soon.

After finding his son's room empty Ash knows exactly who has a clue where to find Keirran: Glitch. The lieutenant is somehow part of the family and like an uncle to the young prince, the person he shares most of his secrets with. While heading to the backyard where Glitch often trains Ash can't help but smile about how much his son shares with a certain summer fey who loves trouble just as much.

"Glitch! Do you know where I can find my son? He seems to be a bit untwisted today and I want to make sure he behaves.", he calls out to the iron feary who is taking a break.

"Sir Ash. He said he wanted to ride, I know you are worried, but the boy doesn't seem like he wanted to go to the Arena."

The Arena is a place where fearys can challenge each other for fights and win favours if they won, one of Keirran's favorite places. Of course he is the one who won the most fights and has collected hundreds of favours already.

"I know you defend him and I don't blame you for it, but believe me: He is my son and I can remember how I was acting at his age. At least I need to make sure he doesn't push his luck.", the former prince replies with a calm emphatic voice and looks sternly at the iron queens lieutenant. That is all he needs to get through him, so Glitch sighs and discloses:

"He said he's riding to the wyldwood to find an item he needs to bring someone."

Ash's eyebrows rise and he wants to know:

"Who? And what kind of item?"

Glitch shrugs and says:

"I have no idea. He just said he needs it as gift for a feary out of court."

Ash realizes immediately who Keirran meant: Annwyl. It must be a gift for the summer fey he fancies since they met at one Elysium. She was banished into the human world for being in love with a fey from the iron realm. The raven-haired feary immediately runs to the rooftop of the castle and takes a glider to get as fast as possible to the wyldwood. If his son wants to find this item he needs help since nothing is free in the feary world, Keirran might think he can do it on his own. But Ash thought that too a long time ago, and he surely wouldn't be still alive if he haven't had help.

***Flashback***

_Goodfellow still was in fight position and Ash knew Oberon's jester could indeed be a person who was able to kill him so he wasn't that interested to get into a fight with him._

_"So shall we decide we don't have to fight each other or not, or do we have to petrify?", the red-head broke the silence and made an annoyed expression._

_"I don't trust you. If I'd turn my back on you, you'd stab me and that's also what the rules are between summer & winter so we don't really have a choice, have we?", the winter sithe answered with a nasty glint in his silver eyes while taking out his sword. _

_"You know, I was never a friend of rules.", his opponent hinted chuckling but had also fire burning through his veins. _

_But before they could attack each other, a loud growl came out of the air and both turned their heads to the sky._

_"That seems like we must work together, prince. I don't know about you, but I couldn't fight off a giant stone-dragon by myself."_


	4. Run around the rules

**Hey, here's another chapter which might be longer than the last ones, I hope you'll enjoy & review it **

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Keirran jumps off the saddle and strokes the metallic neck of his iron horse.

"I'll have to go on by myself now, thank you Firespit.", he mumbles to the silver stan who let's out some flames off his nostrils.

"I know I'm not allowed to go into the wyldwood since my essence is deadly for it, but I don't think you should go all by yourself, prince. I know your parents well, they are not going to be amused about this and if they find out I helped you, they'll give me punishment!", Firespit replies, his voice vibrating of nervousness.

"It was my choice, if they want to blame you for anything I'll stop them, I swear. And it's time for my parents to realize I'm not a child anymore. Other than that I promised to do this. Trust me, I'll watch my back and if any funny thing dares to creep out my sword will take care of it."

The young prince winks one more time at the big iron horse before entering the glamour irradiating wyldwood.

Firespit makes a frustrated neigh before galloping away in hurry.

Slowly Keirran analyses if he's alone and nothing is watching him, but he's also stunned by the old spirited power the whole area makes him feel. Everything in the wyldwood has a huge effect on him, as if he can finally breath in and out. He knows why that is, the blood of summer and winter the original feary- inside of him is making this feel like he just lost weight from his back which always stucks on him in the iron realm. Being a part of all courts and a bit human always was seen as a problem because the two origin courts don't know if they could trust the iron prince. But for Keirran it is a more existential crisis because he feels like he belongs nowhere, in the iron court his iron side makes him strong but around the other realms he always get's the urge to stay there forever. If he could have chosen he'd gone to the summer court to live with Annwyl but Oberon would never allow that to his grandson. Then the escapade happened in which Annwyl was being described to be more beautiful than Titania and the summer queen banished her.

Keirran sights and heads up to north, as he doesn't sees any danger now. Just like the mysterious soothsayer told him to.

Ash slows down his glider as he can see the wyldwood below. But then a metallic reflection catches his eye.

The glider is dazzled but the former winter prince can see that it is Keirran's favorite iron horse galloping without the prince. He wants to take a shortcut on Firespit but fails as the sun reflects the iron skin of the horse and dazzles the glider once more and makes it turn away. When Ash manages to look again Firespit is gone, probably disappeared behind a dune, since the iron realm still has desert at its edge.

Leading his glider now again to the wyldwood Ash spits out a curse. But Firespit was a case he would work on later.

"Search for my son.", he demands and the glider let's out a unltrasonic scream with which it can detect in which direction Keirran is going. The iron creature repeats the inaudible sound three times before letting out a triumphant screech and points with its nose to the north.

"Wonderful! We must land now."

Flying over non-court space isn't allowed as Ash knows, but in situations like that he wishes he could break the rules, just like he did in other times

***Flashback***

_"Wow, this was really nasty!", Robin Goodfellow pointed out, studying the corpse of the stone-dragon before it turned into a huge rock._

_"We were a really good team, right?", he added with a look to Mab's son who was trying to take care of a wound on his arm._

_"If you think I won't kill you now, you're wrong summer jester!", he grunted bluntly while failing in the attempt to bandage himself with one free hand._

_"Huh? You're doing that hell wrong! The bandage won't ever help if you take it on so loosely.", the trickster hinted, rolling his eyes like he had to educate a child. An annoyed growl was the only answer he got._

_Scratching the back of his head Puck was seemingly thinking about something uncomfortable since his always present smile was distorted. The bandage disrupted and Ash sat down on the new formed rock with a frustrated sound._

_"Would you mind if I help?", the redhead offered awkwardly, earning a long unbelieving glance of his supposed enemy. After a very long state of silence Ash broke out:_

_"I'm not dumb! If I let you help me the only thing I'll get is more trouble by having to do a favour for a summer fool who's famous for chaos!". He bit on his tongue after the last sentence because a horrible pain was burning from his arm._

_"Well, it got the chance to bite you. Did you know the bite of a stone-dragon causes the most infections and amputations? Especially if you don't handle them_ quickly_."_

_The summer fey just didn't gave up, having obviously great fun on having an argument with the winter queens son. He put his daggers in the sheaths on his boots and sat down in the grass in front of the prince, fleecing grass off of the ground and making new raise every time._

_Ash stayed stubborn for some more minutes, trying to fix the bandage but it was hopeless._

_"I won't let any summer fey help me, go away!", he snapped at the bored jester who just rolled his eyes and replied:_

_"I see...that's your problem? You can't accept help from a summer fey? I understand that people around here are not that trustworthy, but did you ever thought about that there could be people who would help you without wanting anything back? How is it called again? AHHHHH! Friends! Do you have any friends, prince?"_

_"Just pathetic creatures need friends."_

_"So you obviously don't have any. To be honest, it would have surprised me. So you won't ever need any help? Rather die than letting Puck cure your poor arm? Wow you are so intelligent!", Oberon's servant spoke, jumping up to his feet and going over to the winter prince who looked irritated at the redhead._

_"Don't be such a mulish child and let see if there's still something to be saved."_

_Puck grabbed Ash's arm gently and observed it. The unseelie fey tensed but didn't bridle._

_"Wow, the bite is really a deep one, let's clean it first."_

_A powder-bottle suddenly appeared in Puck's hands and he covered the wound with the substance which made Ash immediately calm down and erased the pain._

_"Not that bad, huh?", Puck teased before putting out a bandage and making a better job in using it then the winter sithe before, smirking like a child at christmas. When he was done he couldn't help but making a sarcastic comment:_

_"I treated you hoooooooooorrible prince, didn't I? We summer fearys are so mean & bad."_

_Ash's mouth corner twitched a bit about that, he looked up to the summer feary and said:" It was a great event to meet you, Robin Goodfellow."_

_Then he just nodded and left the meadow and the summer fey behind, despite his Queens trust in him and his unspoken hatred for the summer court._


	5. Not welcome here

**If you have any suggestions of characters which you'd like to appear in this fic just tell me :) Now have fun with the reading**

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A big black raven watches a silver-haired boy fighting his way through a thick brake. It baulks as it hears an arrogant voice of a grey cat raise too near beside him:

" What a strong hearted boy, but just like his mother he doesn't see obvious facts."

Grimalkin yawns and looks into the green eyes of the raven which seems to be freaking out inside. Puck just hates it when Grim appears out of nowhere.

"I'm not going to be the one who tells him, he could simply glamour the plants to go out of his way, instead of cutting them. But what else can you expect?", the cat sithe goes on bored but looks curiously at the big bird, which just flies to another branch trying to ignore the sarcastic cat and concentrates again on Ash's son who isn't supposed to be there. Somehow Puck knows that. But stepping in before Keirran get's into real trouble isn't necessary, and why not give the kid some space?

If anything get's screwed up he'd still have a certain summer jester watching over him, meanwhile said feary can plan his perfect show for when he appears.

Ash snorts as he sees the way too obvious footsteps of his son on the ground. He should have taught him more about carefulness when it comes to places like the wyldwood. Or no. Actually he _did _educated Keirran in that but the iron prince doesn't keep his attention up in the lessons.

Meghan would let loose on monsoon if Ash won't find Keirran soon and that is something everybody's afraid of: The bad temper the iron queen has gotten since she was crowned.

It's not like Ash wouldn't accept that, but he's quite irritated by the new powerful and darker version of Meghan, it's like all feary queens create this new personality. Well he has to admit that he's somehow afraid of her when she has those moments. And it's hard to make yourself love someone you're afraid of.

Ash breaks his thoughts immediately as he comes up with this, but his inwit can't help it. More proofing facts fly through his mind and he transforms his inner conflict into physical action.

As he opens his frantic eyes again the whole area around him is frozen, just like the truth was in his mind for so many years. The memory of a promise he had to give a felt eternity ago comes up but he chokes it off before it can truly touch him.

"How could she do this to us?", Ash whispers and sees the mad bright eyes of his nightmare again. He owns her that, he owns Ariella her last wish, otherwise she would never find peace. But how? How can he keep his promise forever and live a lie?

The bitter thoughts of the former prince get interrupted as he hears a sudden scream. Keirran's scream

The iron prince jumps back as his blade rebounds from the troll's skin. He is giant, has white-greenish skin covered with moss, stones and even some garish pink flowers, the angry yellow eyes study the young feary, thinking about if it's a better choice to attack or not.

A strong wave of iron glamour hits the big creature and makes it mad of pain. One of the big green fists lunge out and beat at the prince, but he dodges and uses summer glamour to tie the troll's feet with tendrils. Then Keirran tries to stab into the gian's eye but get's throwed against a tree, he tries to get up fast while the troll manages to rip the vines.

The silver-haired fey wants to attack again, but suddenly a crowd of wyldwood dwellers appear around him with death stares. Clearly they don't like the iron court and dislike its multi-glamour prince even more.

Before the hell can break loose, the black raven flies over Keirran and turns on the way into Puck who lands on his feet and with folded arms, while wearing his usual grin.

"Nah-nah! Not really nice to stare down a young boy of that age! Mobbing is a very serious case!", he jokes while grabbing his daggers and parses the upset crowd of fearys.

"Will you take this abomination under your wings, Goodfellow?", a dwarf with a pickaxe which is bigger than her, spits out at the redhead and the other members of her family mumble curses about the trickster who pretends to gape and shrugs as answer.

"Or are you protecting him just because he's the offspring of your "friend" ? ", a goblin chuckles with a lewd smirk.

"You all are idiots! What do you think will happen if you attack the iron queen's son, huh? She will simply tear all of you apart.", Puck barks out and strains as the fearys come nearer. They all hold on for a moment until the dwarf woman says:

"We'd rather die than let the tyrant stay alive! Didn't you her the prophecy?"

And then all hit out against the iron prince & Puck.


	6. An argument

**Hello again :D Sorry I haven't updated in the last days, stuff went a bit crazy plus I had preparing week before the final exams. So either way, here's another chapter and I hope you'll like it **

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It takes Puck some moments before he realizes what just happened: While he did prepare his daggers for the big fight, Keirran used a huge amount of power to freeze the opponents with his winter glamour. Of course it's impossible he managed that alone.

Puck's turns around, only to look directly into two silver eyes which are full of anger, but also relief. They scan the summer jester with some big surprise, but then fixate on Keirran who swallows hard. Then the former winter prince makes his way to his son with a slow but very storm-like pace, while giving the boy such a toxic glance that every other feary would turn into ice, just like the wyldwood crowd.

The outlier sighs and scratches his head, looking first to his shoes but then directly at his father full of determination. An uncomfortable silence stays for a torturing, long momemt before the prince inhales deep and starts to explain:

"Dad...I know this you and Mom upset, but you must understand that.."

"That what? That you ride away without caring to let us know? That you'd make your mother crazy of concern? So that _I'm_ worried and will most likely ground you for the rest of the century?", the winter sithe hisses at him with such a cold tune that Keirran shivers.

"You don't understand! Let me finish! I am old enough to take care of myself and stay away some days if I want.

Hell! Every other fey I know spends days alone in the wyldwood, it's only natural for every fey! Why am I not allowed to do that? You did it too when you were at my age, so what's the big deal? Do you think I'm not strong enough?

Oh, please! You know I'm the best fighter at my age, so there must be another reason and you're free to tell me!",

the silver haired prince responds with fuel and folds his arms while waiting for Ash's response, who is grinding his teeth. But still he answers more calmed than before:

"Believe me, son. There's a good reason, why we are so careful with you. But your mother wants to keep it a secret, it's too hazardous to tell you about it. Maybe one day when we're sure there are no consequences. Just trust us for now!"

He's gaining a uncomprehending look of his son's narrowed eyes, then the spicy reply:

" Oh! _So_ I should listen to my parents and do whatever they say, while they clearly _hide_ something _from me_ and obviously want me under their _control_? Do you ever think about that I am old enough to make my own decisions now? Or that I need to fulfill a promise. Father, you were the one who taught me to keep every promise I make, it's the biggest duty to a prince! Will you force me to break it?"

Ash breathes deeply in and out after hearing that. All the words remind him of himself.

If there wasn't this damn prophecy or Meghan's vision from the future, the former prince would gladly allow his son to fulfill the promise & travel around the Nevernever. Every other fey in the world does that, so it*s understandable that Keirran feels trapped in the iron court.

Teaching Keirran to keep his promises had been Ash's most important thing to teach him. So if he holds him back now, he'd delude himself.

"You can fulfill your promise, but only if you allow me to come with you.", he submits forthcoming and hopes his son isn't stubborn by wanting to do this alone. But he wouldn't be Meghan's son if he isn't stubborn, so of course Keirran shakes his head.

"No! I need to do this alone, I don't need any help!"

Suddenly both hear someone clearing his throat.

"Family is wonderful, isn't it? Sorry I interrupt your daddy-son teenage drama fight. But we should probably get out of here before this nice wyldwood dwellers melt and get back to their anti-prince club mob status.",

Puck- who leaned against a tree the whole time while being entertained with the fight throws in and looks rotative from Ash to Keirran and back. The other two look at him in shock, they were so sucked into their fight that they haven't noticed the prankster anymore. But now Ash is more than ever aware of the fact the person, who chases him in his dreams and is always the main figure in his memories, is standing just a few steps away from him. The first time since too many years.

"Goodfellow is right. We'll go on talking about everything in a safer place.", the silver-eyed fey agrees, not stopping to look at the summer fey for a long time after.

Keirran notices the weird way his father looks at Puck and says then:" Erm...shouldn't we do so then & actually move?"

immediately ash turns into a random direction and demands:"Follow me!"

"Dad, that's the wrong way. We need to go north!"

Again Ash turns around, this time to north while averting that anyone can see how embarrassed he feels in that moment. Then he hears a devilish giggling from Puck who touches his shoulder in a friendly way and discloses:

"Haha, I really missed you, ice boy. Isn't this an interesting gathering? Mini ice boy grew a lot, I have to admit. I think I should change my nickname for him to "Teen angst". Besides: If you have problems with him just let me take care of the boy for a while. I mean I would take care of him and Meghan and you can have a little childless vacation. Teen angst would agree since I'm the cool uncle."

He winks while taking the lead of their way, but not before turning around and waving the grey cat on a tree who is rolling his eyes.


End file.
